# Mistral Small 3 vs Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct

> Mistral Small 3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 30.9 to 29.1 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/mistral-small-3-vs-phi-3-mini-128k-instruct
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 18

## Summary

- They share 18 benchmarks with published results for both. Mistral Small 3 scores higher in 5 categories and Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct in 3 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct leads 29.2 to 15.3.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is BigCodeBench Instruct: 45.3% for Mistral Small 3 and 29.6% for Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct.

## Snapshot

| | Mistral Small 3 | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Mistral AI | Microsoft |
| Noometry Index | 30.9 | 29.1 |
| Rank | 268 | 303 |
| Context | 33K | — |
| Input $/M | $0.05 | — |
| Output $/M | $0.08 | — |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Mistral Small 3: 36.0 (#203)
- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 28.3 (#307)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 45.3% | 29.6% |
| LMArena Coding | 1246 | 1040 |
| BigCodeBench Complete | 50.4% | 40.6% |

## Reasoning

- Mistral Small 3: 18.2 (#269)
- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 18.7 (#254)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1233 | 1028 |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 127.06 | — |

## Math

- Mistral Small 3: 15.3 (#290)
- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 29.2 (#220)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1240 | 1089 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 6.7% | — |

## Knowledge

- Mistral Small 3: 25.0 (#258)
- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 26.3 (#251)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1202 | 984 |
| GPQA Diamond | 47.3% | — |
| Confabulations | 25.2% | — |

## Multilingual

- Mistral Small 3: 37.5 (#231)
- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 25.4 (#280)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1198 | 1000 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1204 | 1016 |
| LMArena French | 1202 | 1038 |
| LMArena German | 1211 | 1006 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1111 | 899 |
| LMArena Korean | 1188 | 856 |
| LMArena Russian | 1216 | 1004 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1058 |

## Instruction Following

- Mistral Small 3: 63.9 (#224)
- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 52.1 (#289)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1214 | 1023 |

## Long Context

- Mistral Small 3: 37.8 (#206)
- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 30.3 (#284)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1246 | 996 |

## Writing & Preference

- Mistral Small 3: 32.4 (#275)
- Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct: 27.3 (#296)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1234 | 1050 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1195 | 1024 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1217 | 989 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 707 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Mistral Small 3 better than Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct?

Mistral Small 3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 30.9 to 29.1 on the Noometry Index.

### Is Mistral Small 3 or Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct better for coding?

Mistral Small 3 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 36.0 versus 28.3 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do Mistral Small 3 and Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct share?

18 benchmarks have published results for both models. Mistral Small 3 has 24 scored results on Noometry and Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct has 19.